This invention relates to protection of buildings from wildfires with water sprinklers on roofs.
Damage and devastation from wildfires in natural-growth areas is a constant threat in many locations, particularly during dry seasons. Many homes and buildings are burned from direct contact with flames or most often from embers spewed from a wildfire that fall on the roofs of homes and buildings, sometimes a long distance from the fire. The present invention is designed primarily to protect homes and buildings from the latter occurrence.
Sprinkler protection from wildfires can range from known elaborate rooftop systems that affect aesthetics of a building and provide cooling also to simplicity of merely turning a hose on a building when a wildfire is imminent. The rooftop systems can be costly if no wildfire occurs and using the hose can be dangerous to the user, who must remain on sight in fear of a wildfire, and not sufficiently protective. The present invention is less expensive than the hose because it has other offsetting-use values and yet can be more effective than known elaborate rooftop systems. More particularly, it can be used not only as a highly effective rooftop system for wildfire production, but also as an advantageous and inexpensive on-ground sprinkler-irrigation system when not in use to protect against wildfires.
Examples of most-closely related known but yet different devices and systems are described in the following patent documents. U.S. Pat. No. 5,263,543, issued to Nigro on Nov. 23, 1993, taught a sprinkler system mounted on a roof permanently as a roof fixture instead of portable irrigation sprinklers on legs being positioned temporarily on roofs with the legs resting on opposite slopes of the roof as taught by this invention. U.S. Pat. No. 4,824,020, issued to Harward on Apr. 25, 1989, described a sprinkler stand on legs, but the legs are attached pivotally to a hub or table to be pivoted between parallel positions for being carried and angular positions for use with points of the legs being positioned in soil to arrest pivoting. This pivoting action and reliance on soil positioning prevents use on a rooftop where non-pivotal rigidity without reliance on soil positioning is essential. Further, Harward is limited to five legs, which would prevent its use on all but five-sided roofs which are unknown or conical roofs which are too few to render the Harward device practical within the teachings of this invention. U.S. Pat. No. 4,330,040, issued to Ence, et al. on May 18, 1982, described a fire preventing and cooling system with tubes having orifices permanently on rooftops for dispensing water differently than the legged positioning sprinkler system taught by Applicant. U.S. Pat. No. 4,091,876, issued to Valdatta on May 30, 1978, described fire sprinkler system for mobile homes having a loop of tubing mounted on the perimeter of their flat roofs with sprinklers pointed inwardly. U.S. Pat. No. 3,576,212, issued to Siler on Apr. 27, 1971, taught a fire-shielding device with sprinklers on stands positioned on ground surfaces and extended higher than a roof of a building for spraying water on the roof effectively.
Objects of patentable novelty and utility taught by this invention are to provide a wildfire protection system which:
directs spray of water on rooftops and also on limited peripheral areas for fire protection;
includes sprinklers on legs that rest reliably where positioned on roof slopes;
can be positioned on a roof quickly when needed for wildfire protection;
has series connection for a plurality of units to be positioned wherever needed on large and multi-sectioned roofs;
has optionally sandbag-weighted or water-weighted bases for being carried and positioned easily and filled with water automatically when releasing water into a hose to which the sprinklers are connected;
can be stored in disassembled mode for commercial distribution and for consumer storage when not in use and then assembled quickly and easily when needed;
can be used as an effective irrigation sprinkler;
is light enough to be easily carried on a ladder for positioning on a roof;
can be produced inexpensively for low-cost but highly effective wildfire protection when needed; and
optionally can be small, aesthetic and permanently weighted for indefinite positioning reliably on rooftops.
This invention accomplishes these and other objectives with a wildfire protection system having rotating sprinklers on sprinkler legs positioned temporarily or indefinitely as needed on roofs with the sprinkler legs resting on opposite slopes from a ridge of the roof and removed for sprinkler irrigation or easily disassembled for compact storage when not in use for wildfire protection. The rotating sprinklers can wet not only roof tops but also nearby trees, shrubs and areas for protection against flying sparks and burning particles against which tile roofs also are not protective. The rotating sprinklers are preferably a low-weight plastic type and the sprinkler legs are preferably four low-weight plastic members that intersect at a series connection for garden-hose water supply to one or more of the rotating sprinklers. The rotating sprinklers are saddled on a rooftop with two of the sprinkler legs placed on each of two opposite roof slopes. Low weight of the rotating sprinklers allows them to be placed easily on roofs with access by ladder or structured to be positioned indefinitely. Anchor-weighting for extra resistance to winds if necessary can be provided by sandbags or by water containers on sprinkler footings with water supplied automatically from a garden water hose. The water containers can be removable and/or emptied easily and can have runner ends contoured for sliding rooftop or irrigation transport. Backup supply of water can be provided from an available reservoir with a pump powered by a motor or a heat engine in a power system that is protected from foreseeable wildfire.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention should become even more readily apparent to those skilled in the art upon a reading of the following detailed description in conjunction with the drawings wherein there is shown and described illustrative embodiments of the invention.